Ion and electron heating during magnetic reconnection in weakly collisional plasmas

TL;DR

This study uses gyrokinetic simulations to analyze how magnetic reconnection in weakly collisional plasmas leads to ion and electron heating, revealing localized heating patterns and the role of phase mixing.

Contribution

It demonstrates the mechanisms of ion and electron heating during magnetic reconnection in weakly collisional plasmas using gyrokinetic simulations, highlighting localization and dependence on plasma beta.

Findings

Electron heating is localized to magnetic islands and occurs after reconnection.

Ion heating is significant in high-beta plasmas and involves phase mixing and finite Larmor radius effects.

Ion heating is localized inside secondary islands (plasmoids) in space.

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection and associated heating of ions and electrons in strongly magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas are studied by means of gyrokinetic simulations. It is shown that an appreciable amount of the released magnetic energy is dissipated to yield (irreversible) electron and ion heating via phase mixing. Electron heating is mostly localized to the magnetic island, not the current sheet, and occurs after the dynamical reconnection stage. Ion heating is comparable to electron heating only in high-beta plasmas, and results from both parallel phase mixing and perpendicular phase mixing due to finite Larmor radius effects; in space, ion heating is localized to the interior of a secondary island (plasmoid) that arises from the instability of the current sheet.